Ondertussen: Tanja Engelberts

4 July - 6 September 2015Location: Hogewal 1-9, The Hague

Open: Monday to Friday: 11-17 hrs; Saturday and Sunday: 12-17 hrs

In 2014 The Hague artist Tanja Engelberts spent a month as artist-in-residence at the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming (USA). The starting point for her residency was the Creation Myth of the Crow, the native people of Wyoming and Montana. In this story of creation the world is created by the sun and the animals. Tanja was especially attracted by the Crow's connection to the earth and by the story's simplicity. With the help of Sharon Kahin, director of The Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum, Tanja Engelberts came into contact with Grant Bulltail, one of the last storytellers of the Crow Nation.

In Ondertussen we see and hear Grant Bulltail tell the story of creation in his own native language. To an outsider who cannot understand what he is saying without a translation, only his hand gestures reveal what he is talking about. Tanja Engelberts connected the rhythm of his voice to the rhythm of walking through the landscape. Tanja used both the content of his story and the inaccessibility of his performance as a metaphor for the landscape.

In the Crow Creation Myth the wind is a catalyst. The land is created by blowing mud into the air. The wind is an enduring presence in the Wyoming landscape. During long walks Tanja Engelberts came up with the idea of further investigating the relationship between the landscape and the wind. In a panoramic projection, we see the landscape pass us by, the wind subtly rustling, or sometimes coming at us as a primal force. The images are made up of fragmentary observations that, in Tanja Engelberts mind, create an imaginary landscape.

In 2014 Tanja Engelberts received a SPOT subsidy for her residency at the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming.